While watching the coverage of the World Trade Center attacks I have noticed many pundits calling the terrorists "cowards" and "cowardly". This contradicts the definition of a coward which is "One who shows ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain" [source]. If we are going to label these attackers as cowards we must realise that the same label can be applied to many of the actions of the United States.

If we use these actions as a guidepost to the meaning of "cowardly", then how do our own war-time aggressions appear? Were the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the most courageous attacks any country could hope to have initiated? How about our terrorist attacks (both economic and military) against Cuba or Iraq, the carpet bombing of rural populations in Vietnam, or the murder and forced internment of Filipinos? Are these events to be held aloft as pinnacles of greatness and ultimate good? I'm sure we can all come up with excellent rationalisations for these atrocities. We had our reasons and our reasons are not to be questioned.

The United States has attacked the civilian populations of many countries and yet we have never been indicted on war crimes. Why is that? That's an easy one. We are the world's superpower. Anyone who stands in our way will feel our wrath. We will decry your actions as cowardly, even though you give your lives for what you believe in. We will destroy your populations, degrade your infrastructure. When we are done with you, you will come begging for our help.

I'm not saying what happened in New York on September 11 is excusable. It was a horrible act of violence which should be condemned until the sun no longer shines, but we cannot pretend that we are innocent of crimes equal to and worse than these attacks, or that our reasons for murder are more holy than those of others.

Do not think for a moment that these attacks were unprovoked. Someone is very angry at the United States for something. Angry enough to kill thousands of innocent people to get their point across, angry enough to die doing it.

So today I implore you to pray to your chosen diety, mourn the senseless loss of life, and think very hard about what we have done to bring this upon ourselves.

Laos. Most of them were due to the standoff nature of the combat, designed ti minimize American casualties. A greater stomach for American casualties would have lessened the need to drop bombs on Communist supply lines accidentally running through neutral countries.

Of course, the never told story on Vietnam is the thousands of tons of hallucinogens and tranquilizers dropped on the populace to keep them content. Otherwise, how could you explain the thousands upon thousands of Vietnamese boat people who risked rape, injury, death and prison to flee Vietnam after the Communist takeover. Certainly they weren't fleeing because of the ills of Communism.

cowards take the easy road. death is a pretty easy road. and it's not as if the perpetrators went themselves. no, they sent people off to die. that's cowardly.

primarily, though, i see that the author has decided to take up the opinion that so many in the media have -- that we, the US, somehow deserved this. it's easy to think that, and it's in that decidely typical and self-sacrificing vein that is such a disgusting feature of the american mind.

what did we do to deserve this? we had the audacity to stand up for what we thought was right. i hope that we continue to have the courage to stand up for what is right, and continue to irritate all of the fanatics out there. in that case, we can root them out, and take them out.

--ebbuild a man a fire and he'll be warm all day. set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

"If we use these actions as a guidepost to the meaning of "cowardly", then how
do our own war-time aggressions appear?"

I submit that the word 'cowardly' could be used to describe any organization or government that provided support/training to these terrorists. They're the ones hiding behind these as-of-now anonymous hijackers. Acting aggressively under the cloak of anonymity is the height of cowardice. It's a bit of a bitch move to take shots at someone without disclosing your identity. I think we've all been slandered behind our backs. I've never had much respect for someone who is afraid to stand up and face me.

Also, I have to say most of your comparisons of invalid. There's a difference between what happened yesterday and what happens during times of war. If you'd like to compare the actions of the US to the war-time atrocities committed by other nations, then go right ahead. There's not one nation whose conduct was at times less than honorable.... BTW I've never heard ANYONE describe the incidents you mention as 'pinnacles of greatness.'

you don't have any idea of courage (1.00 / 1) (#4)

by Anonymous Reader on Wed Sep 12th, 2001 at 11:06:02 AM PST

Courage is firemen running to a building about to collapse trying to rescue people. Cowardice is using a civilian plane to kill thousands of unsuspecting and helpless people. If those sorry bitches were not cowards then they could come down to my work with a knife and we could fight it out. I could respect that.
<p>These are the same assholes that shoot at buses with kids in them in Israel/Palestine. There is no courage in that.
<p>I don't think we could justify what we did in southeast asia. A lot of leaders made wrong decisions at that time under the presure of the cold war. I think that the horror of the a-bomb saved lives - American AND Japanese - that would have been lost if we had to invade the mainland.
<p>Funny that people like you never mention what the Japanese did to the Chinese or to our POWs; what the Iraqi's did to Iranians, Kuwaitis, or their own citizens.

Funny that people like you never mention what the Japanese did to the Chinese or to our POWs; what the Iraqi's did to Iranians, Kuwaitis, or their own citizens.

OK, what do you know about me? It seems that you should know a great deal about me in order to speak for "people like me". I didn't mention those particular events because they have little relevancy to the discussion at hand. I am speaking about the delusion many Americans have that we are some kind of shining white knight, protecting the world from "evil", when we are very often responsible for "evil" acts around the world. And we very often fund and arm the people we are later fighting. You mention Iraq and the things they did to themselves and others. Where do you think they got the weapons to do these things? From the US. And they asked our permission before they invaded Kuwait, and we gave the go-ahead.

Your argument seems to be that because other nations commit atrocities, we (America) are therefore not suspect, or "not so bad".

Another funny thing about this whole mess is all the comparisons to Pearl Harbor. One thing that most of the pundits have failed to talk about or recognise is that in that case we also provoked the attack. Prior to the attack we froze all Japan's assets in America, closed the Panama Canal to Japanese ships, progressively halted vital exports to Japan and later joined Britain in and all-out embargo, threatened them with force if they didn't alter their Pacific policies, and 11 days before the attack we demanded that they remove all troops from China and Indochina as a prerequisite to restoring trade (this action would have caused Japan to violate its Tripartite Treaty with Germany and Italy). So in both cases (Pearl Harbor, New York) we provoked the attacks against us and then pretended we had no idea they were coming.

Now were going to go on a witch hunt for the people who did this and commit massive acts of violence and destruction in retaliation. And then we will get hit by more terrorism and will start another witch hunt. Over and over again.

If anyone is at all interested in finding out about the terrorism the United States carries out against other countries, look into a man named Robert Fisk. Also, read Noam Chomsky. Here are some links:

Perhaps the most important thing to come out of this whole tragic incident will be the realization that Americans are not special. That we have no God-given mandate to run the world, and that at the end of the day, we are accountable for our actions at home and abroad.

That we cannot go around the world slaughtering at will and expect to get away with it.

The proverbial chickens have come home to roost.

Who can forget the sight of 10's of thousands of young Iraqi conscripts burnt to a crisp so that us fat Americans can have cheap gas for our SUVs ?

Who can forget the destruction of entire villages in Vietnam ? Or the bombs planted by the USA backed IRA killing hundreds in Great Britian ?

We are a young nation. One that is not particularly skilled in the art of diplomacy. Up to now our superior firepower has hidden our limited diplomatic expertise. But now events will force us to take a less gung-ho attitude on the world stage. That can only be a good thing.

Finally, before you get worked up into a facist frenzy baying for blood and demanding revenge, pause for a minute and reflect. What would it take for YOU to become so desparate, so full of hate that you would hijack an airliner and steer it into the side of a skyscraper in the full knowledge that you would die, along with thousands of others.

I'm not in any way trying to justify the actions of the terrorists/freedom fighters but you have to admit, as Americans we have been pretty arrogant in the past.

rar rar rar (3.00 / 1) (#7)

by Anonymous Reader on Wed Sep 12th, 2001 at 02:34:38 PM PST

Perhaps the most important thing to come out of this whole tragic incident will be the realization that Americans are not special. That we have no God-given mandate to run the world, and that at the end of the day, we are accountable for our actions at home and abroad.
That we cannot go around the world slaughtering at will and expect to get away
with it.
The proverbial chickens have come home to roost. Who can forget the destruction of entire villages in Vietnam ? Or the bombs planted by the USA backed IRA killing hundreds in Great Britian ?

You write as though what happened yesterday was some kind of divine karmic retribution for past sins. Don't terrorists have a concrete goal/agenda? a specific policy or action to which they object? If the latest reports as to the terrorist's area of origin are to be believed, I doubt they give enough of a shit about Vietnam, the IRA or depleted uranium in Kosovo to undertake a suicide mission...

We are a young nation.

Young compared to who? The US has one of the LONGEST continually running governments in the world...

One that is not particularly skilled in the art of diplomacy.

Please provide specific examples...

Up to now our superior firepower has hidden our limited diplomatic expertise.

Superior only for the past 50 years, and for most of the the US had the USSR to deal with. I would argue that it was actually savy diplomacy on both sides that kept the Cold War from heating up... (Cuban Missle Crisis, anti-proliferation treaties, etc...)

movie boy (none / 0) (#8)

by Anonymous Reader on Wed Sep 12th, 2001 at 05:45:23 PM PST

Who can forget the sight of 10's of thousands of young Iraqi conscripts burnt to a crisp so that us fat Americans can have cheap gas for our SUVs ?

Isn't that a line from one of the Die Hard movies?

WTF (1.00 / 2) (#9)

by Anonymous Reader on Wed Sep 12th, 2001 at 06:30:32 PM PST

Hundreds of people dieing in great britain at the moment from IRA bombs?
eh no were the fuck did you get that from?

And please dont forget the other side, the loyalists kill people too!

USA is special (1.00 / 3) (#10)

by Anonymous Reader on Wed Sep 12th, 2001 at 11:19:07 PM PST

I agree USA had make mistakes along the years, like Vietnam.
But without USA the German Nazism would be the main force in the world. Without USA Evil will control this planet.
I believe that USA symbolized the GOOD of this world, perhaps not the perfect good but defiantly good !

I agree with you on that point but it still dosn't mean that the US won the war single handed. Nor was it done out of complete alturism either as I think a continent dominated by Nazi Germany possessing the British fleet was exactly in the USA's interest either...

Coward: One who shows ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain.
I think this is an applicable definition. The organization (not the *actual* persons, who are dead) responsible for this attack shows ignoble fear in the face of the danger and pain that will come from US retribution against them. By hiding behind anonymity those responsible have shown cowardice.
Posted by an ANONYMOUS coward.
Posted by an ANONYMOUS coward

They were cowards and they were communists too (2.50 / 2) (#14)

by Anonymous Reader on Thu Sep 13th, 2001 at 01:02:10 PM PST

Don't you understand. Coward is a negative trait. They did a negative thing. A->B, and C->B, therefore C->A. Duh. It's just like the Dmitry Sklyarov case. Dmitry didn't do anything wrong. Dmitry was prosecuted under the DMCA. Therefore the DMCA is unconstitutional. Duh.

*taptap* Excuse me... (none / 0) (#19)

by Anonymous Reader on Thu Oct 25th, 2001 at 09:02:11 PM PST

From what I've read on the case, I don't believe Dmitry was wrong either. I'm not about to say the DMCA is constitutional. But because something is or is not wrong does not mean that it is or is not constitutional.

Nobody ever said the constitution is right. Nor is it wrong. What is IS is the closest several (if you extend it to the philosophers they read, several hundred) very briliant minds could get to a way to enforce what's right. Considering it's lasted through 200+ years of manipulative partisanship from both sides of all the aisles that have come and gone through our history, I'd say they did pretty well.

But that doesn't mean anything's perfect. Though I hope to God and anyone else down here that'll listen it's not constitutional, whether it's right or wrong doesn't determine that.

Not cowardly (1.00 / 1) (#17)

by Anonymous Reader on Mon Sep 17th, 2001 at 12:06:28 PM PST

We are used to saying cowardly terrorists as they normally leave a bomb somewhere to kill indiscriminately, ripping people apart whilst they are safe at home watching TV and munching on potato chips. This is the first case in the USA where it's been a suicide terrorist action (as far as I'm aware of), and to conquor the instinct of self-presevation is quite a feat. They were fucked up, but not in my opinion cowards.

The British that survived handled the situation quite calmly, but then we get bomb threats all the time. The Americans supply the IRA with explosives to kill British men, women and children in _cowardly_ terrorist attacks (and then the President shake hands with the terrorist chief in front of the White House).

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